Spring football practices add to Groody's hectic schedule

Mickey Groody has more than enough on his plate right now – even without high school spring football practices starting this week.

A typical day is a round-trip journey from his home in Sebastian early in the morning to Vero Beach High School, where he teaches and coaches the girls flag football team immediately after school. Then it’s on to John Carroll Catholic in Fort Pierce, where he recently was hired as the head coach, to run workouts or 7-on-7’s. Then he finally makes his way back to his home.

Oh yeah, and Groody's wife Lisa gave birth to their first child, McKenna Faith, on Saturday.

“The days are long, I’m not going to lie,” Groody said. “I’m definitely getting the miles in.

“I reached out to (Vero Beach head coach) Lenny (Jankowski) because he went through the same things when he was in the Panhandle. It just comes down to time management. You can’t time-manage with the baby, obviously, but there are other things. There’s no wasted minutes in the day.”

There won’t be much wasted time on the field when the Golden Rams start practice.

“The biggest thing we have to do is install,” Groody said. “Installing everything offensively and defensively is going to be the biggest thing. Getting the full 20 practices in is going to be a huge thing for us.”

Groody is one of four new head football coaches on the Treasure Coast this spring. Longtime assistant Jeff Cameron was hired at Fort Pierce Central, Chris Hutchings moved from John Carroll to Fort Pierce Westwood, and Rod Harris has taken over at Martin County.

For each of them, getting their players up to speed with expectations and the new systems during the next month are vital.

Hutchings takes the reins of a Westwood team that won the District 15-5A championship in 2017 and returns first team all-area defensive back Willie Lewis (No. 7 on the TCPalm Super 11) and quarterback Coy Gray, who earned honorable mention on the all-area team.

“I think the biggest thing for us, since we’re changing what we were doing on defense, is to get everyone on the same page with that,” Hutchings said. “We’ve done some 7-on-7’s, so as far as installing that stuff, I think we’ll be a little closer to where we need to be. I don’t think we’ll miss a beat on offense. Coach (Robb) Wilgoren was the offensive coordinator last year. The kids know him and know the offense, and he does a great job.”

Martin County went 4-5 last year, primarily because of the strong play of quarterback George Johnson (No. 3 Super 11). Johnson should pair with rising senior wide receivers Trevor Parent and Josh Patterson to give the Tigers a potent passing game again this season.

“The first thing we have to do is put in a system on offense and defense that the whole program is going to run at all three levels,” Harris said. “The second thing is find a running back. Everybody has to run the ball. Last year, I think they had six or seven. I think we can have a 1,000-yard runner in this system with the right kid.”

Cameron inherits a Central program that went 2-7 in 2017 – only the second losing season the program has had since 2008.

“The thing I’m looking forward to most is bringing back the culture that’s been lost,” Cameron said. “I want to start re-establishing a winning culture, team unity. We’ve already started doing that with our workouts – sweating together, being together.

“The simplicity of what we're going to do system-wise allows me to be more focused on the culture and do things the right way. Also, we have quality athletes here that are picking things up pretty well. It allows them to buy into the culture as well as the install.”